UNITED STATES
‘Starliner’ launch date set
Boeing’s Starliner capsule finally has a launch date for its first test flight to the International Space Station. After an intensive review on Thursday, NASA and Boeing managers agreed to a liftoff on Friday next week. “Hopefully, we should all be getting an early Christmas present this year,” NASA commercial spaceflight development director Phil McAlister said. Just a few technical issues remain to be completed, he added. No one is to be aboard, just a mannequin named Rosie. Three astronauts are to be onboard for the second test flight of a Starliner some time next year. SpaceX also plans to launch astronauts for NASA next year. The company conducted a test flight without a crew in March. United Launch Alliance’s Atlas V rocket is to provide the Starliner’s lift from Cape Canaveral, a little before sunrise. The capsule is due to parachute back to New Mexico on Dec. 28.
CHILE
Human remains recovered
Searchers combing Antarctic seas have recovered parts of a military transport plane and human remains belonging to some of the 38 people aboard, officials said on Thursday. Air Force General Arturo Merino said at a news conference that based on the condition of the remains, he believed it would be “practically impossible” that any survivors would be pulled from the water alive. An international team of searchers continued the hunt, while officials on shore said that they would use DNA analysis to identify the crash victims. Among the recovered items, searchers have found a landing wheel, sponge-like material from the fuel tanks and part of the plane’s inside wall. Personal items include a backpack and a shoe, officials said. “Remains of human beings that are most likely the passengers have been found among several pieces of the plane,” Merino said. “I feel immense pain for this loss of lives.”
BRAZIL
Test impostor arrested
On her fourth attempt at the driving test, Maria Schiave — an elderly woman in the small town of Novo Mutum Parana in the Brazilian Amazon — arrived two hours late. The other candidates had already completed their attempts at parallel parking and examiners were about to take them out on the road when Maria finally appeared, but something was wrong. “I sensed a certain nervousness from the school’s owner,” driving test examiner Aline Mendonca said. “He said: ‘We have a problem.’” Test examiner Mendonca could not believe what she saw. “It was a guy with a long outfit, heavily made-up. It did not look like a woman,” she said. The man was carrying a handbag and wore a long skirt, a floral top, earrings and a stuffed bra. He had even painted his nails. “I couldn’t believe it,” Mendonca said. “It was surreal.” Mendonca, a driving test examiner for 12 years, kept her cool. She told a colleague to tell the police, asked “Maria” for her ID and let the impostor start the parking test. When the police arrived, “Maria” got out of the vehicle and walked away, but police soon caught up. Under the makeup was Maria Schiave’s son, Heitor Marcio Schiave, 43, a mechanic. He was arrested for fraudulent misrepresentation, the officer who arrested him said. “He said he was doing the driving test for his mother — and his mother did not know,” the officer said. “We got a lot of criticism: ‘Oh, the son did it for the love of the mother,’ but what if there was an accident or someone died?” Mendonca said. “You have to earn your pass — the driving test is serious.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of